Gary: A Simple Conversion by gahughey
-
on September 9, 2010 |
A Simple Conversion by Gary
I was raised Pentecostal and Baptist and spent many years in and out of church as a youth. There was a time we even lived on the Navajo reservation as a missionary family with us five kids attending the local school.
I was very familiar with the Bible as I read it a lot. I would spend hours searching and praying, looking for understanding and knowledge. As we moved around, which we did very often when looking for work, it didn’t take long for the family to become ‘inactive’. But my heart was still drawn to church.When I was a late teen I was attending a Church of Christ congregation, the only one in my family attending any church services. While I was there I had the feeling I was to be a preacher. I felt this was my life’s calling. But I had so many questions yet unanswered.
Soon after graduation from High School I joined the military and got married to my high school sweetheart. After about a year she kept after me to get drunk. She felt since I was so funny sober imagine how I would be drunk. After many months of her constantly asking, and at times begging me, I relented and started drinking.
I was transferred to go to school for the military and stopped in to visit our families in Oklahoma. My parents had just been baptized into the Mormon church and my mother handed my first copy of the Book of Mormon.
While at school I didn’t give any time to read that book my mother had given me. I was under a heavy load with a pregnant wife, so I felt I had little time even for myself. Then I was stationed in St. Louis, Missouri, right after school.
One day I was sitting in in our apartment in St Louis knowing my life was not what I wanted out of it. So I decided to call my mother back in Oklahoma City. As soon as my hand touched the phone it began to ring.
I answered and said, “Hello?”
The voice on the other side said, “I have the answers you’re looking for.”
I said, “Excuse me?”Again he replied, “I have the answers you’re looking for. ”
In my state of confusment I asked him who he was, to which he replied, “I am Elder (and I have no idea what name he said) So and So and I am from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.”
I asked him how he had gotten my number and if my mother had given it to him which he replied, “Sir, I have no idea what number I dialed. All I can tell you is, I have the answers you’re looking for.”
To think that out of close to a million people in the St Louis area this elder had ‘just decided’ to call me, right then when I was going to ask about the church in the first place. I knew God worked miracles but could this be? He did have my attention, for certain.
I asked him when he could come over. I then learned that he couldn’t because of the distance involved but he would send someone to me. He said if I would wait by the phone he would call another elder in my area.
After a wait of almost five minutes the ‘new’ elder called me. We set up an appointment at his earliest convenience. When the missionaries came to my door I was impressed to see that they traveled in pairs.
Back then they had a set of 12 discussions on a flip chart. Within one hour we had already finished half. I was asking the questions and was finally getting my answers that had eluded me for so long. I was hungry for what they offered and knew in my heart it was true.
It soon came time for them to leave for another appointment and as we got up and walked towards the door I asked, “I have been baptized in 2 different churches and I am guessing I need to do the same in yours. And if so why isn’t it good enough for what I have already done?”
The Elder looked at me, then to his companion before answering. He said, “Yes, you need to be baptized again. The reason is “Authority”. You have been baptized, true. Now you need the authority from God to make it correct”.
I stayed on the elders about being baptized, but they wanted me to wait for my wife to join also. I kept telling them that I shouldn’t have to wait just because of her choices and that I knew she would not be ready to join for some time. After about a month of waiting I called the elders and asked, “Elder, if I died today and was not baptized whose head would this fall on?” I was baptized a few days later by my father.
